Bluemoon's Official Top 100 Albums

BlueHammer85 said:
3. David Bowie - Hunky Dory 11/151

View attachment 2620

Hunky Dory is the fourth studio album by English musician David Bowie. Released on 17 December 1971, it was his first album for RCA Records, which would be his label for the next decade. It was recorded in mid-1971 at Trident Studios in London and featured Rick Wakeman on piano, and the musicians who would later become known as the Spiders from Mars – Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. The album was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, who had engineered Bowie's previous two albums. Hunky Dory was Scott's first album as a producer; he went on to co-produce Bowie's next three records.

After his previous album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970), Bowie took time off due to managerial problems and other conflicts. In February 1971, he was sent on a promotional tour of America, which helped shape the music and lyrics for Hunky Dory. Following the hard rock sound of its predecessor, Hunky Dory shifted Bowie's style towards art pop and melodic pop rock. The album contains three tribute songs to American icons Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and the Velvet Underground, as well as another to his newborn son Duncan. Unlike his previous records, the songs are primarily piano-led rather than guitar-led. Some of the songs contain lyrics influenced by the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The album cover, photographed by Brian Ward in monochrome and re-coloured by Terry Pastor, was influenced by Lauren Bacall and Greta Garbo, as well as a Marlene Dietrich photo book that Bowie took to the photoshoot. The title, an English slang term meaning that everything is right in the world, was suggested to Bowie by Bob Grace of the music publisher Chrysalis.

Upon release, Hunky Dory received very positive reviews from British and American publications but failed to chart, partly due to poor marketing. After the commercial breakthrough of his follow-up album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Hunky Dory became a commercial success, peaking at number three on the UK Albums Chart. It was supported by the singles "Changes" in 1972 and "Life on Mars?" in 1973. Retrospectively, Hunky Dory has received critical acclaim and is regarded as one of Bowie's best works. It has been placed on lists of the greatest albums of all time by such publications as Time, Rolling Stone, NME and Q. The album has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2015 as part of the Five Years (1969–1973) box set.

1. Changes
2. Oh! You Pretty Things
3: Eight Line Poem
4. Life On Mars?
5. Kooks
6. Quicksand
7. Fill Your Heart
8. Andy Warhol
9. Song For Bob Dylan
10. Queen woman
11. The Bewlay Brothers

Bluehammer Fact: Although Bowie normally waited to name his albums until the last possible moment, the title "Hunky Dory" was announced at the John Peel session. Grace got the idea from an Esher pub landlord. He told Peter and Leni Gillman, the authors of Alias David Bowie, that the landlord had an unusual vocabulary that was infused with "upper-crust jargon" such as "prang" and "whizzo" and "everything's hunky-dory". Grace told Bowie, who loved it. Pegg notes that there was a song from 1957 by American doo-wop band the Guytones also titled "Hunky Dory" that may also have played a part.


Click to expand...


Can't really argue with this being in the champions league spots.
 
Onholiday(somemightsay) said:
To be fair, bits I have read up on it (not old enough to have been around of its release ;-) ) the band seemed to be in complete termoil at the time which is generally accepted as being reflected in the lyrics (which surely adds integrity?).

As far as stuff being cut and pasted toget to create a new 'hybrid' song, whilst the technology has been available that will have been used to great effect (just someone else's fresh eyes on a piece / some pieces of music).

The harmonies are great (from my other likes CSN-Y etc you could see why that would be a great plus I'm my view).

Recording music so that it sounds better over the airwaves back in the day of restrictive technology to maximise it's output just sounds like common sense to me (I'm pretty sure loads of record companies will have been trying to achieve the exact same thing with their acts)..........
Click to expand...
Whilst agreeing with every single point you make, for me, that makes it purely a piece of commercial product with little musical endeavour except to make a sound that will accrue dollars

an album in the top ten of the top 100 should have much more artistic merit than that

just listening to Highway 61 Revisited, thanks to @BlueHammer85 ‘s endeavours, which knocks the likes of Rumours out of the ball park
 
levets said:
Did you actually submit your top 20 for consideration?
Click to expand...
I didn’t see the thread.
However it is a cracking thread, just cannot fathom how anyone could possibly vote for something so bland and meaningless as Rumours.

I could write a thesis on the other 99, but they are down to personal choice, timing and sometimes, though not often, quality.
 
squirtyflower said:
Whilst agreeing with every single point you make, for me, that makes it purely a piece of commercial product with little musical endeavour except to make a sound that will accrue dollars

an album in the top ten of the top 100 should have much more artistic merit than that

just listening to Highway 61 Revisited, thanks to @BlueHammer85 ‘s endeavours, which knocks the likes of Rumours out of the ball park
Click to expand...

Blonde On Blonde is much better
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.